Things to Do with Barbecue Sauce

I had decided this weekend to try out a BBQ ribz recipe that Ms. Dorklepork had recommended, but being the airhead that I often am, I had been spending the whole last week thinking it called for vital wheat gluten flour when in reality it called for just vital wheat gluten. Needless to say, I was not pleased when I realized this on Saturday night and was only equipped with the former and not the latter. But I decided f- it. I had a nice big batch of Barbecue Sauce with a Bite whipped up from the PPK, and, well, I couldn't just let it go to waste, dammit. So I improvised.

Using my brainiac skills (and praying that even though there are large differences between unwashed gluten--which the original recipe called for--and gluten FLOUR (differences that I'm not even sure of but know exist), a Christmas miracle might take place and the ribz might not end up tasting like dog poo), I decided that I'd take my chances and try to substitute in my wheat gluten flour.

Thank all things thankful, it worked out ok. In the end, the ribz were scrumptious (though I *DO* plan on one day trying out the original recipe to see if it blows my version away) and the only thing I would change about them would be to half the sizes on them all as the best parts were the ends, and the very middles were a little bit more chewy instead of yumbly and tough and grrrrristly. So I'll include that little variation in with this recipe.

(Oh yeah, and them potatoes in the back--those be mashed potatoes I made with the chickpea gravy from Vegan with a Vengeance, which was tasty but did not blow me away as I'd hoped based on the book's recommendations...)

BBQ Sauce with a Bite

Ingredients

• 12 oz tomato paste


• 1/2 cup tamari or Braggs (I used 1/4 c. Braggs and 1/4 c. soy sauce)


• 1/4 cup blackstrap molasses


• 2 T. brown sugar


• 1/4 c. nutritional yeast


• a few chipotles in adobo


• 1 t. liquid smoke


• dash of cocoa powder

Directions

Mix the tomato paste, tamari, molasses, brown sugar, nutritional yeast, chipotles in adobo, liquid smoke, and dash of cocoa powder in the bowl. Stir with fork till completely blended. This tends to make a fairly thick sauce. Thin with water as desired.

(Original recipe HERE)


Vegan Barbecue Ribz


Ingredients:

• 1 c. vital wheat gluten flour


• 2/3 c. of water


• 2 T. soy butter


• 3 T. peanut butter


• 7 Tbl spoons nutritional yeast


• 1 cup BBQ sauce


• spices to taste (onion powder, garlic powder, paprika, etc)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat soy butter and add the peanut butter, mixing it so that it's consistent throughout. Mix the wheat gluten flour, nutritional yeast, and spices in a dry bowl. Add the water and knead until almost all of the dry powder is absorbed (you may have to add a tiny little bit to pick up everything). Do not over-knead. This dough is really sticky.

Form the dough into a flat, square shape about one-half inch thick. Add one-half of the peanut butter mixture to the top of the flattened dough. Use your fingers to poke the peanut butter mixture deeply into the dough (it is goopy and messy, but DO IT!). Do this for about 30 seconds. Turn the dough over and pour the remaining half of the peanut butter mixture onto the dough, again using your fingers to poke into the dough.

Use a pizza cutter to cut one-half inch strips of dough. Make them as long or as short as you like them (though if you originally form your dough into a rectangle, I recommend halving the rectangle and THEN cutting the 1/2" strips--the end result would be rips half the length of the ones pictured above, which I think would offer up the ideal consistency). Lay out on a lightly oiled baking pan. Bake for about 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, use a spatula to turn the ribz over. Spoon or brush on BBQ sauce and return to the oven.

Bake for another 5 minutes. Remove and turn the ribz over again. Spoon or brush on some more BBQ sauce.

Bake for another 5 minutes. Remove and enjoy your hot, sweet and sticky "ribz!"

Makes enough for four.



(Original recipe from VegFamily.com)

* * * * * * *

Even after all the ribz, I still had a ton of BBQ sauce left over. So Sunday night, with a package of tempeh sitting in my fridge getting ready to expire, I decided to whip up some barbecued tempeh to use up the excess sauce. I used a long skinny package of tempeh (whose brandname is eluding me), but I'm sure you could make do with whatever. You'll just end up with different sizes and shapes.

The end result was surprisingly delicious, and I definitely recommend the roasted red pepper topping as it seriously made the dish. Not only was it tasty, it was also ridiculously ridiculously simple, as you will see. So chalk this up as another highly-recommended quickie.

L's BBQ Tempeh



INGREDIENTS

• 1 package of tempeh


• About 1 - 2 c. of BBQ sauce (preferably the homemade kind above, thinned out to a slightly more marinade-ish consistency with water)


• 2 red peppers, roasted

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 350.

Slice your tempeh into 4 slices--first slice your chunk in half, right down the middle. Then slice it through the skinniest part, effectively thinnng out each of your slices and cutting them into two thinner slices.

Spray a bread pan with a bit of non-stick oil. Pour in some BBQ to cover the bottom of the pan. Add two slices of tempeh, side by side. Use a spoon to brush some more BBQ sauce on top of them. Layer your other two slices on top of these two slices. Pour the rest of your BBQ sauce on top. Cover the pan with foil.

Cook in the oven for 50 minutes, turning the slices over half-way through. Remove the foil and cook for 5-10 more minutes.

To serve: Place one of the slices on a plate. Top with roasted red peppers. Place another slice on top. Top this with roasted red peppers as well. Serve

Makes enough for 2 tempeh "steaks."